On Sunday, November 7th I led my second OFNC birding outing at Jack Pine Trail. A flock of Snow Buntings flying over my driveway just as I was about to leave brightened my spirits and seemed to promise a great day of birding. Not only were these the first Snow Buntings I had seen this fall, but also the first ones I had ever seen flying over my house - an excellent yard bird for the suburbs!

Although 15 people showed up for the walk, including Deb, there weren't as many species at Jack Pine Trail as I had hoped. We saw a small flock of Dark-eyed Juncos, both species of nuthatch (both of which readily came to our hands for food), Golden-crowned Kinglets, all three woodpecker species, Blue Jays, chickadees, a Brown Creeper, mallards, and four Green-winged Teals. Because of the cold overnight temperatures ice had begun to form on the ponds, so there weren't as many duck species present as I had hoped. A beautiful male White-tailed Deer was probably the best sighting of the walk.

The second part of my outing involved a stop at the Richmond Lagoons. There was still quite a bit of open water here, resulting in a good mix of waterfowl including the Green-winged Teals, Northern Pintails and shovelers I had seen on my previous outing as well as a Ruddy Duck. Only five other people accompanied me to the lagoons, and we enjoyed studying the ducks for a good twenty minutes before the outing broke up. Deb and I made one last stop at the Moodie Drive quarry ponds, where we added two Common Mergansers and a Great Blue Heron to the day's tally.

Although I enjoyed leading my second outing, I was disappointed I couldn't find at least one spectacular bird for the group. Given the recent sightings of Bohemian Waxwings, Common Redpolls, Pine Siskins and White-winged Crossbills I thought we'd find at least one of these species. As it was, I didn't even take my camera out of my bag; as a result, I have no pictures to post from the outing.

Sorry you couldn't find anything special for the group...I know the feeling, not that I've led OFNC groups, but anytime I take friends or family nature-walking I'm hoping to find something spectacular for them to see.

Your postings appear to be slowly catching up with the present day. Perhaps they'll even show up on my friends page again sometime soon! ;-)